County Court Claim - UKPC / DCB Legal - KFC Newark - Discontinued

matthubbert100

Hi everyone,

I'm the lucky recipient of a County Court Claim from UKCP / DCB Legal, seeking a total of £282.84 that began with a Parking Charge in a KFC Carpark back in April 2021. This is one of those very frustrating charges where despite the restaurant being open, apparently cars were not permitted in the carpark after 1am. I probably only spent 10 minutes here while I grabbed a drink, and so I was understandably shocked and disgusted when i discovered they would attempt to enforce such a charge - I'm even more surprised they continue to pursue it 2 years later. But here we are. The carpark in question made it into the press last year for the same reason: newarkadvertiser.co.uk/news/early-hours-visit-proves-costly-for-kfc-customer-9278959

I've spent the past day reading a lot of the posts on this forum, including the newbies thread, and getting myself familar with the timeline and the steps involved. It looks like there is a pattern emerging with this company and I'm clearly not on my own. I've deliberated paying this fee and making it all go away which is incredibly tempting, but the more I read the more I feel a sense of duty to put up a fight and to make some sort of contribution into the stopping of these schemes. I'm about to work on the first steps (acknowledgement of service?) and think about what my defense is going to look like. But there is a handful of uncertainties I would appreciate some input on as I start off down this road.

1. I am the keeper and was the driver. I don't have any obvious excuse for violating their parking terms in this scenario. However, it was late, it was dark, the restaurant was open, there were cars in the car park. To me it seems bonkers that I would be expected to leave my car in the road, walk across the empty car park, somehow knowing in advance that I shouldn't park there. How do they know I didn't see the sign, and therefore left shortly after? How do they expect people to read the sign without having first driven into the car park? Are they likely to have footage of my ignoring the signs, and continuing into the restaurant? It all just seems very shady to me, I'm really interested in what they're argument would look like in this respect.

2. I'm happy to spend some time writing up some sort of defense, likely an elaboration on my general thoughts made above, but regarding the suggested defense template there is a lot of information on there that is hard to understand. How much of that defense template should I understand and be able to explain in an actual court hearing?

Here are some details of the claim:

1. The defendant is indebted to the claimant (C) for a parking charge issued to vehicle ... at Kfc Newark, lincoln road, newark, ng24 2db.
2. The PCN details are 24/04/2021, 9146321114915
3. The PCN was issued on private land owned or managed by C. The vehicle was parked in breach of the terms on Cs signs (the contract), thus incurring the PCN.
4. The driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not. D is liable as the driver or keeper. Despite requests, the PCN is outstanding. The contract entitles C to damages.
AND THE CLAIMAINT CLAIMS
1. £170 being the total of the PCN and damages.
2. Interest at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.02 until judgment or sooner payment.
3. Costs and court fees.

Amount claimed: £197.84
Court fee: £35
Legal representative's costs: £50
Total amount: £282.84

Signed YASMIN MIA

Thanks for your time and look forward to sharing any updates with you.

Boat_to_Bolivia

Hello and welcome.

Could you please provide the Issue Date of the CCC and if you have filed the AoS on what date did you do that?

@KeithP will be along soon to confirm some important dates and other information.

matthubbert100

I can't seem to edit posts yet however the issue date is 20/04/2023. No AoS submitted yet but hopefully have time to look at it thisevening.

Boat_to_Bolivia

As this is UKCP and DCB Legal, your defence should be based on the one written by @Johny86.

That is a link to his user profile. There you will find his Discussions which include his defence specific to DCB Legal claims.

Also you may be interested to learn that DCB Legal are renowned on this forum for discontinuing claims. If you search @Umkomaas's discussions you will find a thread featuring numerous examples of this.

KeithP

matthubbert100 said:

I'm the lucky recipient of a County Court Claim...

matthubbert100 said:

...the issue date is 20/04/2023. No AoS submitted yet but hopefully have time to look at it this evening.

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th April, you have until Tuesday 9th May to file an Acknowledgment of Service but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 23rd May 2023 to file your Defence.

That's nearly four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

B789

You should file your AoS at least 5 days after the "issue date" and within 19 days of that date. @KeithP will be along to confirm your dates and deadlines. Your defence will be based on the one by Johny86. A sample of that defence is shown here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5r7vbqttho3q948/2023 defence.pdf?dl=0

For paras #2 and #3 just put your case as a short punchy description about how you did not see any signs because they were not prominent or obvious. Just search for other UKPC/DCB Legal examples already on the forum. It is littered with them.

To see how the outcome of your claim is likely to pan out, have a read of this thread:

DCB LEGAL RECORD OF PRIVATE PARKING COURT CLAIM DISCONTINUATIONS

Coupon-mad

Are they likely to have footage of my ignoring the signs, and continuing into the restaurant? 

Nope, it will be easy to defend and you won't say anything about that. Your paragraphs 3 and 4 will not talk about it, only that the signs were inadequate and no parking 'contract' was seen, let alone agreed or breached.  If it was dark, say so.

Anyway, all DCBLegal Defendants are using and adapting the defence by @Johny86 which has specific extra paragraphs 5-11 for you to add into the template defence.  Making it over 30 paragraphs.

matthubbert100

Thanks for your suggestions so far. I've started work on the defence from Johny86 and just have a couple small questions so far:

Paragraph 1 from the template ends with "Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the Particulars. ". However, my POC does mention "D is liable as the driver or keeper". Is this line in the template still applicable? Or is it unclear precisely because it says "driver or keeper"?

Also, I've thrown together a small Paragraph 3 which is pretty much all I have to say on the matter, let me know if it's still too much, or irrelevant -

3. The driver was a patron at KFC, Lincoln Road, Newark, NG242DB for which the car park appeared to be provisioned. Despite it being after 1am, the restaurant was open and there were other vehicles parked, giving a false impression the car park was open to visitors. The driver was a genuine customer and remained on site, observed no obvious or well-lit signage stating the car park was closed, and therefore had no reason to believe any parking restrictions would have been immediately violated.

I've since been back to the carpark and took a whole bunch of photos of the signage at night time, with some interesting observations. Granted, these are unlikely to bare any relevance to what the signage may have looked like 2 years ago, but let me know if there's any use in presenting them at any stage.

Thanks guys

Coupon-mad

You don't present any evidence with a defence.  And yes, that first paragraph is completely correct for ALL cases. Don't change it.

All you need is to write a para 3 & 4 then you continue with 5 onwards of Johny86's defence.

So split your para 3 (which is fine) into two. Job done!

KeithP

I would remove the word 'false' from your paragraph 3.
But that's just me. 

Coupon-mad

I agree.  Good point.